Rosamond House

Address: 37 Bell Street, Carleton Place, Ontario

This house was built in 1832 for James Rosamond, one of the first industrial developers of Carleton Place. He started a woolen business in the 1830s with a small carding and fulling mill. In 1846 he built and operated a woolen mill along the Mississippi River close to the house. This was the first known textile mill run by water power in Eastern Ontario.
The lot was originally part of the 100 acre grant to William Morphy in 1819. The house remained in the Rosamond family for forty years. In 1857 James Rosamond moved to Almonte, and the house was occupied by his daughter Rosalind and her husband Dr. William Hurd until his death in 1870. The Muirhead family then purchased and lived in the home until 1957.
This is a fine example of a 2 ½ story Georgian style home, with a shingled gable roof with returning eaves. The rough dressed limestone was quarried locally. Flat radiating wedge shaped pieces of limestone form arches over the double hung windows. In 1900 the original front door was converted to a bay window, and the entranceway moved to the east side of the house. The frame kitchen wing was added in 1901.

David Findlay House

David Findlay House

Address: 49 High Street, Carleton Place, Ontario

This red brick home was built by David Findlay in 1874, who had built his first iron foundry in 1862 on the lot directly behind the house. Findlay’s Foundry operated in Carleton Place for 110 years, and Findlay stoves were sold around the world. It was one of the town’s main industries, employing at its peak more than 400 people. David Findlay died in 1890 and his wife Catherine lived in the house until her death in 1933. The house remained in the Findlay family for 98 years, being used as a company guest house for the last 23 years.

The lot was originally part of a 100 acre Crown grant to Edmond Morphy, co-founder of Carleton Place, in 1819. It was acquired by Findlay, a Scottish immigrant who had settled in Perth prior to arriving in Carleton Place in 1860. He first built a log cabin with his small foundry behind. Here he produced castings for ploughs and coolers. When this brick house was built in 1874, the log building became the foundry office. A memorial playground and cairn mark the sites of these original structures.

The house consists of two sections, each with a gable roof, the larger main part being built first. Built during a prosperous time of building construction in Carleton Place, the house is characteristic of the larger, 2 ½ story brick houses of the 1870’s.

Elliot House, circa 1865

Elliot House, circa 1865

Address: 75 Bell Street, Carleton Place, Ontario

This brick house predates the church next door.The side entrance, bay window with elaborate cornice molding, projecting brick trim, simple verandah with bargeboard, steep roofline and gingerbread make this house a fine example of gothic revival architecture.

Dunlop House

James Dunlop House, circa 1853

Address: 111 Townline Road East, Carleton Place, Ontario

This house was built in 1853 by James Dunlop, a carpenter and millwright, whose family had settled in Ramsay Township in 1821. He used the present dining room as a workshop for building coffins, and later built the frame workshop still in use behind the house. He occupied the house with his wife and seven children until his death in 1887.

His son James Fitz Charles Dunlop continued to live in the house until 1941. James F. and his brother Adam were also millwrights and boat builders. James later worked in the Gillies Boat Works, producing boat engines and marine craft for national distribution. Adam was the leading builder of skiffs and small boats in Carleton Place, starting in the 1870’s in his father’s workshop and later from the white frame house and workshop he built next door at Townline Road East.

This unique frame house is the only one of its type in Carleton Place. It is of clapboard construction with an unusual shed roof and decorative brackets along the frieze on the front and sides. The two story porch is supported by four columns on each level. The front has a 12 paned French window on either side of the central door on both first and second levels. The main door has a four paned transom and rectangular sidelights. The clapboard on the front of the house is tongue in groove construction, with the sides and back being of regular clapboard.

Children's Shelter, William St.

The Children’s Shelter

Address: 294 William Street, Carleton Place, Ontario

The first Children’s Aid Society in Ontario was founded in 1891 in Toronto. It was 1920 before a Children’s Aid Society was formed in Lanark County, and this was in Perth. It would be 1924 before a children’s shelter would be established in Carleton Place.

Various members of the extended family of Abraham and Mary Morphy, under the leadership of Mrs John B. Morphy (Margaret), took in hundreds of local children in need over the years. This meant that, not only did these children receive the help and protection they needed, they did so in their own community and were no longer sent away.

The house that once served as the Carleton Place Children’s Shelter still stands, looking very much as it did at the time, but is now a private residence.

66 Queen St. N

The Erma Roe House

Address: 66 Queen Street North, Carleton Place, Ontario

Built in 1887 and inhabited by the Millikin family for almost six decades, the house then became home to Erma Roe, a ‘spinster’ who worked at the nearby Bates and Innes mill and supplemented her income by renting part of her home to tenants, for almost three decades.

Local newspaperman Ross Davis and his wife Ruth started their life as a couple here, as did a young couple and their newborn son, the Willoughbys. A registered nurse who worked at the nearby Carleton Place hospital (Miss Sadie Dowdall) and the widow of a Bates and Innes accountant (Mrs Etha Steet) also found shelter under Erma Roe’s roof.

In time, the house was again occupied by families, and it grew new additions to accommodate modern lifestyles.

Cornell House photo taken 1968

The Cornell House

Address: Moffatt and McRostie Streets, Carleton Place, Ontario

On 14 January 1876 Mr. George A. Cornell purchased lots 1, 2 and 3 in section N of Carleton Place from John McRostie and William Moffatt at a cost of $375.00 for each lot.(7) The lots are located on the south side of McRostie Street with frontage on the Mississippi River. In 1876, Mr. Cornell had a large two-story brick house constructed on the river at Moffatt Street. The year 1876 is engraved in a brick near the north-west corner of the front wall about five feet from the ground. Engraved by hand on a nearby brick is F. Cornell 1884, probably the work of George’s son Francis, who would have turned seventeen in June of that year.

The house has a roof in the mansard style of architecture with arched dormer windows, symmetrically place over the windows in the exterior brick walls. The Cornell house has a solid and inviting appearance enhanced by its location on the river. The abundant use of wood, so readily available at the time for dressing of doorways, baseboards and ceiling trim, enhances the interior appearance of the house. The plastered ceiling in the grand salon is detailed with an exquisite ceiling centerpiece. There is wood trim moulding around the perimeter about a foot from the walls. However, the delicate balusters and rounded banister of the staircase suffers somewhat from a fragile appearance when viewed next to the massive baseboards and doorframes. Peter M. Cornell who enjoyed sliding down the banister as a boy remembers his mother’s warnings that he might damage it under his weight. His mother’s warnings did not deter him and he never did have an accident or cause damage to the railing.

Cornell House 1909

One interesting feature of the home is the existence of a concealed opening to a hidden room which is located on the landing going upstairs. A vertical spring-loaded board conceals the opening. When the bottom of the board is pushed forward, an opening allows a small person to crawl into the concealed space. The board returns to its original lateral position once the person is inside the room. At any sign of unrest in town or external threat to the inhabitants of the house, the children could hide within the room. The hideaway contained cans of food and candles. We can wonder if the reason for building the concealed room was a result of the Fenian raids that preoccupied the people of the counties close to the St. Lawrence River after the American Civil War.

In 1927 four years after George Cornell’s death, the property on which the house stood was transferred to his daughter Nellie. The property remained in the Cornell family until 1969 when Peter M. Cornell, acting on behalf of his aunt Ellen J. (Nellie) Cornell, sold the house to Robert and Beatrice Bowker.

This article is an excerpt from a family history of the George A. Cornell Family of Carleton Place by Terry Skillen. The copy of the complete report is available at the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum.

Burgess House, 2013

Burgess House

Address: 249 Lake Ave East, Carleton Place, Ontario

The Burgess house was built in 1900 for Arthur Burgess who was a weathy local businessman, and served as Mayor of Carleton Place in 1903 and in 1922. This grand brick home with it's circular driveway, massive front porch, and original carriage house is a fine example of Victorian architecture of the time. The home features fine oak trim throughout, and a grand entrance hall with a number of stained glass windows. In 1987, when the house was being renovated, it was discovered behind lays of wallpaper were actual painted murals on the walls. On one wall it was discovered a painting of a steam engine travelling through the Fraser Valley in BC with a snowly winter scene with a long cabin. It was discovered when all the wallpaper was completing removed, the homeowners of the time found several other scenes painted on the walls by an artist. It is beleived the artist of the wall murals was a Mr. Grant who was a brother inlaw of Arthur Burgess.

Kennedy House, 144 High Street

Kennedy House

Address: 144 High Street, Carleton Place, Ontario

Many homes in Carleton Place have unique histories, but none more than the home that sits on the south-west corner of High and Flora Streets.

This house was originally built in Ferguson Falls, Ontario. It was moved to Innisville, Ontario and relocated later to Carleton Place. Legend has it that the building was rolled on large wooden wheels to Carleton Place. According to folklore, the move took place in the winter on the frozen ice of the Mississippi river and lake. The house was then hauled about one block from the river to the present location on High Street in Carleton Place. Some accounts say it was moved in two sections, others say it came down the frozen waterway in one section. Either way, it would have been quite a feat at the time to move this large wooden structure that distance.

Although a formal record of the move does not exist, there is evidence that the move did happen. Some years ago, David Findlay observed sets of large wooden wheels in the Innisville Museum. He was told that the wheels were used to move a house on the ice from Innisville to Carleton Place. Mr. Findlay in his research also wrote the following which is availble at the Carleton Place and Beckwith Museum:

" Charles Hollinger of Ferguson’s Falls confirmed the story , and referred me to a photo of a needlework sampler in a publication “Primitive and Naïve Art in Canada” by Blake McKendry. The sampler, dated 1845, was done by Catherine Ferguson, and shows a structure in that community identical to that of 144 High St. We know nothing about the reason for moving the building, but it is interesting that it was built in the “plank on plank” manner, common in early houses built where sawn lumber was readily available"

The available information dates the structure sometime before 1845, and moved to Carleton Place about 1900. The next time you are on High Street, stop and look a this house, and think of the time and effort needed to move such a large structure at the time from Ferguson Falls to Carleton Place on the winter ice of the Mississippi River.

According to Google maps it is 18.3 km via modern roads from Ferguson Falls to Carleton Place. It would be quite a bit longer if you went via Innisville and followed the Mississippi waterway.

Credit: Information provided to Heritage Carleton Place by the carleton Place and Beckwith Museum from the research done by Mr. David Findlay, who was a past President of the Historicial Society.